Grubbs’s prizewinning research centred on metathesis, a reaction in which catalysts create and break double carbon bonds of organic molecules in a way that causes different groups of atoms in the molecules to change places with one another. This changing of places results in new molecules with new properties. Building on the work of Chauvin, who in the 1970s had shown how metathesis could take place, Grubbs and his associates in 1992 reported the discovery of a catalyst that contained the metal ruthenium. It was stable in air and worked on the double carbon bonds in a molecule selectively, without disrupting the bonds between other atoms in the molecule, unlike the significant but unstable molybdenum-based catalysts reported by Schrock two years earlier. The new catalyst also had the ability to jump-start metathesis reactions in the presence of water, alcohols, and carboxyl acids. Grubbs’s discovery helped pave the way for practical applications of metathesis, including the development of new products such as advanced plastics and pharmaceuticals. Catalysts used in metathesis also contributed to the rise of “green chemistry,” which involves using techniques that minimize pollution in chemical processes.

Learn More in these related articles:

French chemist who was corecipient, with Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock, of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2005 for developing metathesis, an important chemical reaction used in organic chemistry. Chauvin offered a detailed explanation of “how metatheses reactions function and what types of metal compound act as catalysts in the reactions.”

American chemist who, with Robert H. Grubbs and Yves Chauvin, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2005 for developing metathesis, one of the most important types of chemical reactions used in organic chemistry. Schrock was honoured as “the first to produce an efficient metal-compound catalyst for metathesis.”

private coeducational institution of higher learning at Stanford, California, U.S. (adjacent to Palo Alto), one of the most prestigious in the country. The university was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford and his wife, Jane (née Lathrop), and was dedicated to their deceased...